CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Venture capital groups invested $1.8 billion in commercial space startups in 2015, more than in the last 15 years combined, a report by aerospace consultants the Tauri Group shows.

A remodeled version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the launcher’s first mission since a June failure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

The lion’s share of the 2015 space investments was a $1 billion round of financing for Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded and overseen by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also runs Tesla Motors Inc.

“The year 2015 was a record-setting year for space ventures, with investment and debt financing of $2.7 billion,” according to the Tauri Group’s “Start-Up Space” report, which was released on Monday. (bit.ly/1mYlaxL)

Since 2000, space ventures have won more than $13.3 billion in investment, including $5.1 billion in debt financing, the study showed.

Since 2000, companies have paid $2.2 billion to acquire space ventures, with deals worth $1.7 billion occurring in the last five years. Those include Monsanto Co’s purchase of the Climate Corporation for $930 million, Google’s purchase of Skybox Imaging for $478 million and ViaSat Inc’s acquisition of WildBlue for $568 million, the study showed.

Overall, venture capital investments in U.S. firms totaled almost $60 billion in 2015, with the software industry pulling in $23.6 billion, followed by biotechnology at $7.4 billion, a January 2016 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association showed.